Customer service? What a joke... Admin please respond.

[john876]

So I'm a returning Vodafone customer from Three (Why you might ask).

Well, I pre-ordered the iPhone 6 plus with Three, I was told it would be delivered on 19/09. They phonde me back the same day to say it will be delayed until the first week of July. Not being very happy about that I shopped around and called Vodafone on Monday 15th. They told me if I ordered it would be delivered on 19/09. So I cancelled my Three order (With ease) and ordered the 6 Plus with Vodafone. 

On my online tracking it showed delivery 19/09 until today when it changed to 08/10 - 22/10. Understanbly I wasn't very happy. I didn't receive any phone calls, emails or tx to tell me it would be delayed. In fact I hadn't even received a welcome email.

So I called 'customer service' to cancel. After being cut off once and on hold for over 30 minutes I finally got to speak to someone.

I have been informed that I can't cancel a pre-order of a non-exhistant iPhone. I have to wait for it be delivered, call back the atrocious customer service and then send it back. I informed her that I am just going to refuse the order from the driver. Why should I pay to send it back when I have already informed Vodafone I wish to cancel the order? I asked to speak to a supervisor but was just continuosly fobbed off.

The whole process took over an hour and I still can't cancel the order.

Can someone please explain why I cannot cancel the order of a non-exhistant product?

[drey_p]

Hi there

When you place an order there is a very small window of opportunity during which you can cancel.... it is in the region of about an hour after the order is placed.  Basically you pretty much need to cancel the order immediately.  Once they have started processing it, you won't be able to cancel the order. You have to wait until it is delivered and then return the handset. 

[john876]

Thanks.

But why?

Three managed to cancel the order 3 days later. They haven't got the stock so it's not like it is in transit. 

In my opinion they lied to people to get their custom and are now anything but helpful. It's funny how all the other networks knew their stock levels and rightly informed people of delays.

[JeanPauldeJong]

It is lack willingness, and possibly wrong IT implementation. Surely if no phone has been allocated, and it hasn't been sent, it makes much more business sense to cancel at that stage such that you can avoid doing all the work and delaying others in the queue behind you. I mean why would you want to pay to pick the phone, to package it up, to have it loaded, to have it shipped, to have it delivered, to have it rejected, to have it driven back to the deport, to have it shipped back to Vodafone (or its handler) to check it back in as returned stock, to then process it and check it and make it available stock and to then cancel the order.

Surely it would be so much easier to avoid all of that and cancel before that happens? And from that perspective you also avoid holding a customer telephone number ransom by not issueing their PAC code. Especially so when you actually have no idea when you get stock to do all of the above.

It just doesn't make any logical sense. And I've not even began to talk about what got them in that mess in the first place.

[davidmarkrich]

I think you can I managed to cancel and revert to my old plan this afternoon when I had the same dates. Don't speak to customer service call returns that's what I did and they sorted it

[JeanPauldeJong]

@davidmarkrich - How do I get in contact with them?

Today I've spoken to Upgrades, I've spoken to the retain team, I've exchanged messages with customer relations....And all keep saying the same thing, I need to wait until the phone gets delivered.

[davidmarkrich]

Ring 191 and its the option about delivery or returning a phone. They cancelled my upgrade and reinstated my upgrade so I can now go to EE get the phone and give them my pac code. This last week has just been a joke.

[davidmarkrich]

I think the options change depending one the stage of the account just tried calling upgrades now at 22:50 and quoted a call back time of 1-2 hours guess there working late. Also I'm fed up of there rubbish hold music the same two songs

[JeanPauldeJong]

LOL Thanks for that buddy...

I finally got through to live chat, a call back is scheduled for midday tomorrow. It was hard work again to get through to someone who could cancel it. It is like they have a policy to do everything possible in their powers to thwart your intentions....

It is a shame but hopefully I'll be set free....Just need to plead with EE for a signal box like the sure signal I need for vodafone...

[davidmarkrich]

No need EE are doing calling over wifi on the new iPhone so as long as you have wifi you have a signal. Only UK network to support it as mentioned in the Apple Keynote